The US city of Seattle has declared riots following large protests in its Capitol Hill neighborhood, and police have deployed sudden explosions and pepper spray to try to clear a multi-block occupied “protest zone” that spans several blocks.
Through Twitter, police said they had made at least 11 arrests and were investigating “possible explosive damage” to the walls of the city’s East Precinct police station on Saturday.
Authorities said they threw stones, bottles, and mortars at officers as they tried to clear the area. An officer was hospitalized with a leg injury caused by an explosive.
Previously, protesters in Seattle broke a fence where a juvenile detention center was being built, with some people setting fire to and damaging a portable trailer, authorities said.
Thousands of protesters had initially gathered peacefully near downtown Seattle on Saturday in a show of solidarity with other protesters in Portland, Oregon, where tensions with federal law enforcement have escalated during protests stemming from the May 25 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
|
‘Abuse of Federal Law’: Eliminate Troops, Portland Mayor Tells Trump |
Initially, there were no signs of law enforcement near the Seattle march.
Later, Seattle police said via Twitter that a dozen people raped the construction site of the King County Juvenile Detention Center. Additionally, police said protesters smashed windows in a King County courthouse.
Controversy over the use of tear gas
Earlier this week, King County Executive Dow Constantine, responding to long-standing demands from community activists, said he would work to eliminate juvenile detention centers in the county by 2025.
After the fire at the construction site, authorities said they had ordered people to leave a different area, in a section of Capitol Hill near the city center where the East Precinct is.
Earlier this month, police cleared the “Capitol Hill Busy Protest” area after two fatal shootings.
A group had occupied several blocks around a park for about two weeks after clashes and clashes that were part of the nationwide unrest over the murder of Floyd, a black man who died in police custody.
Before Saturday’s protests, Seattle Police Department (SPD) chief Carmen Best had announced that officers would be armed with pepper spray and other weapons, promising that officers would not use tear gas and urging protesters to remain in peace.
|
Why are US federal troops confronting anti-racist protesters? The | Inner history |
“In the spirit of offering trust and full transparency, I want to advise you that SPD officers will wear pepper spray and explosive balls today, as would be typical in events that have the potential to include violence,” Best said.
At an emergency hearing Friday night, US District Judge James Robart granted a request from the federal government to block the new Seattle law that prohibits police from using pepper spray, blast balls, and similar weapons.
The temporary restraining order ends the law that the Seattle City Council unanimously approved last month after clashes that have been largely peaceful, but were sometimes marked by violence, looting and closure of roads.
The law, aimed at reducing tensions between the police and protesters, will take effect on Sunday.
But the United States Department of Justice, citing Seattle’s police consent decree, successfully argued that banning the use of crowd control weapons could lead to increased police use of force, only leaving them with more deadly weapons.
Meanwhile, a group of heavily armed black protesters marched through Louisville, Kentucky, demanding justice for Breonna Taylor, a black woman killed in March by police officers who broke into her apartment.
Dozens of protesters, carrying semi-automatic rifles and shotguns and dressed in black paramilitary equipment, walked in formation toward a fenced intersection where police separated them from a smaller group of armed counter-protesters.
The black militia called the NFAC wants justice for Taylor, a 26-year-old EMS technician who died in a shower of gunfire when drug investigators carrying a “do not touch” order entered his Louisville home four months ago.
.
